Maldivian cuisine is tasty and particularly interesting considering so many dishes have similar ingredients yet taste unique. The staple diet is rice and garudhiya, a fish broth. It may appear bland and boring to the new comer, but the taste is immediately enhanced with a dash of thick fish paste and a spicy side-dish of onion, lime and chilli. Another popular dish is roshi (unleavened bread) and mas huni, a mixture of grated coconut, fish, lime and chilli which is eaten as a snack or main meal. Mild creamy curries made from ground curry pastes, fish and locally grown vegetables, such as breadfuit, pumpkin, sweet potato and eggplant, are delicious.
Teashop Temptations
For most visitors, the highlights of the local cuisine are the sweet and savoury snacks which are served in all the teashops in Male’, cooked for special occasions on far flung islands and occasionally served on the resorts. The savoury snacks are usually a mixture of smoked tuna, grated coconut, lime juice, onion and chilli, while the sweet snacks are concoctions of four, sugar, eggs and a few generous slurps of coconut honey. It is quite amazing that they all look and taste so different. Here is a selection to wet the appetite:
| Savouries |
| Fihunu mas |
Fish brushed with chilli paste and cooked slowly over hot coals
|
| Gulha |
Fish mixture wrapped in a pastry ball and deep fried |
| Kavaabu |
Deep fried fish rissole |
| Keemia |
Deep fried fish roll, the local answer to a sausage roll |
| Kulhi bis |
Fish mixture wrapped in egg-shaped pastry, steamed and turned in a thick, creamy curry paste (eaten with a spoon) |
| Kulhi Borkibaa |
Mildly spiced fishcake |
| Bajiya |
Slightly sweet fish mixture wrapped in triangular shaped pastry and deep fried |
| Theluli Bambukeyo |
Strips of breadfruit, deep fried until golden brown on the outside and soft and mushy in the middle |
| Theluli Kavaabu |
Fish rissole dipped in bright yellow batter and deep fried |
| Theluli mas |
Chunks of fish brushed with a chilli-onion garlic paste and fried |
| Sweets |
| Banas |
Small sweet bread rolls |
| Bondi |
White, finger-long coconut sticks |
| Bondi-baiy |
Sticky rice custard |
| Foni borkibaa |
Glutinous cake |
| Foni folhi |
Thick pikelets |
| Keyku |
Fluffy plain cake |
| Roas paan |
Slices of bread dipped in egg and sugar then fried |
| Suji |
Drink made with semolina, coconut milk, sultanas, nuts, sugar and a dash of cinnamon and cardamom |